Let Me Sum Up

What do Trinity Groves and Trinity River Audubon Center have in common? Plus:pat-downs!

The Trinity River Audubon Center struggles to attract visitors.
Photo by Jeremy Woodhouse
There are big plans for Trinity Groves, the restaurant/retail/entertainmentdestination at the base of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. Why does everyone inDallas think development spurs density — and not the other way around?
Photo by Justin Terveen

Christmas is over, so I can get back to my normal bah-humbug countenance. I feel more comfortable with a “seriously?” look on my face, anyway.

This morning, while reading Dallas news from the past few days, that look crossed my face more than once. It wasn’t a full on WTF look. More like just a “¿qué.” Because these stories didn’t leave me outraged, just a little confused and sad.

The first was the Dallas Morning News story on the Trinity River Audubon Center and its struggle to attract visitors. I remember when it opened, and a few folks in my office (I worked at D Magazine then) used it to squawk at Trinity River Plan naysayers. See a-holes? This isn’t a boondoggle! Dirt and birds are flying!

And yet …

As the first major component of the $2 billion Trinity River Corridor Project, the center opened in 2008 to warm praise and high hopes. … Since then, yearly attendance has hit about 50,000. By contrast, the Dallas Arboretum … has about 700,000 visitors per year.

The rest of the article spends a lot of time making excuses, everything from “but that’s okay, because our mission is different” to “we need more marketing money” to “West Nile skerred everyone away!”

Do you really think 700,000 people visit the Dallas Arboretum every year because of its mission, or its marketing budget, or its advanced West Nile mosquito surface-to-air defense system? Or is it because it’s on White Rock Lake, easy to find, near real neighborhoods and has grown steadily for almost 30 years? Just askin’.

The second story wasn’t so obviously one of misguided expectations, but a careful read suggests that wouldn’t be a bad takeaway. The current cover story in D Magazine is Peter Simek’s very thorough look at Trinity Groves and the raging development brush fire being sparked there. At least that’s what the headline — “Trinity Groves: The New Dallas Starts Here” — leads you to believe.

But it’s also a more nuanced look at the kabuki dance a city goes through when it’s trying to artificially force organic growth. It’s not easily summarized here, and it’s worth a read, but here’s a taste of what I’m describing:

All of these renderings are still fantasies. When D Magazine went to print in late November, not a single multifamily development deal had been inked.

They’re close, though. Trust them, they’re close. No serious developer yet wants to bet real money on the idea that a lot of middle-class kids want to live there, not yet. But, hey, we’ve got a bridge and some craft beer and angry neighbors who feel their history is being bulldozed and lots of people at City Hall have attended events here and we promised the Fuddruckers guy this would work, dammit. Why does it remind me of a bird sanctuary or a golf course built on a landfill?

In other words, why does everyone here think development spurs density — and not the other way around?

In other words, why does the New Dallas remind me so much of the old one?

Elsewhere

Mike Miles is gonna be graded. I guess that’ll solve everything.

Texas gained nearly a million people in the past two years, more than any other state.

I was going to link to a great story about the Omni housing 500 homeless people and D Mag’s most-read stories for the year, but they’re both effing click-whoring slideshows. In 2013, we’ve got to just stop this. They’re evil and they kill babies.

Retweets

Dick Armey has always been the most appropriately named politician ever.

Fascinating WashPost piece on Dick Armey's coup of Tea Party group, FreedomWorks, & its rapid unravelling. wapo.st/V3cBxU

— Jim Roberts (@nytjim) December 26, 2012

Someone’s in the Christmas spirit. Hi-hooooo!

Do not understand complaints about TSA pat downs.No problem for me! @dfwairport

— Jane McGarry (@TheJaneMcGarry) December 26, 2012

unspecified

Closure news

Neiman Marcus flagship store in downtown Dallas to close for good

Neiman Marcus

undefined

The iconic downtown Dallas location of luxury department store Neiman Marcus, at 1618 Main St., will close for good, the company says.

In a statement, parent company Saks Global said it planned to close the store on September 30, 2026 and focus on its NorthPark Center location in Dallas.

"As we continue to take steps to secure a strong future for Neiman Marcus, our optimized store footprint is aimed at aligning our go-forward presence with customer demand and preferences. After a thorough evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to close the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store on September 30, 2026, and concentrate our resources where our customers prefer to shop.

"Dallas remains an incredibly important market for the Neiman Marcus brand, and our customers in the city and across the suburbs consistently choose to shop at our NorthPark location. We are committed to serving our loyal Dallas customers at NorthPark, where we plan to infuse elements celebrating the Downtown store’s rich history," the statement read.

The store has been open since 1914 and served as a bedrock for downtown Dallas.

The definitive closure announcement, first reported by The Dallas Morning News, ends a months-long saga of will-they-won't-they and back-and-forth with the city of Dallas. There have been many efforts to keep the longtime store open.

To recap: In mid-February 2025, Saks Global said they were closing the 100-year-old store after a dispute with the landlord. City leaders rallied to keep it open. It worked, sort of: a landlord who owned a piece of land on which the iconic store resides agreed to donate it to the city of Dallas, so that there would be no obstacles for the store's continued operation.

But then in late February 2025, Saks Global reiterated that the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store would definitely close on March 31, 2025. More rallying happened.

In late March 2025, days before it was to have closed, Saks Global announced the store would remain open through the 2025 holiday season while it explored a reimagination of the location in collaboration with the City of Dallas.

In January 2026, Saks Global filed for bankruptcy, leaving the fate of all stores unclear. The more than $2 billion in debt that Saks Global amassed to acquire Neiman Marcus in 2024 helped push the company into bankruptcy court, they said. As part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, Saks Global has secured about $1.75 billion in financing to keep the company afloat and its stores open.

In announcing the bankruptcy, Saks Global said it was evaluating its store lineup “to invest resources where it has the greatest long-term potential. This approach reflects an effort to focus the business in areas where [our] luxury retail brands are best positioned for sustainable growth.”

Saks Global announced that the Neiman Marcus store at The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano would close in January 2027 after 25 years. According to Saks Global, there are no plans to replace or relocate the store.

The closures of Downtown and Willow Bend leave Neiman Marcus with two DFW-area locations: NorthPark Center, and the Shops at Clearfork in Fort Worth.

---

Teresa Gubbins and John Egan contributed to this story.

shopping neiman marcus downtown dallas closings